Christian university will not be blacklisted over controversial gay sex ban, B.C. law society rules

A private Christian university that asks its students to avoid homosexual activity will not be blacklisted by the Law Society of British Columbia, despite concerns raised by society directors on Friday that the school’s so-called gay sex ban is “abhorrent” and “intolerant.”

Trinity Western University (TWU) became the subject of controversy after it submitted plans to establish a degree-granting law school at its main campus near Vancouver. The proposal received preliminary approval last year from B.C.’s Ministry of Advanced Education, and from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada in December.

Following its review, the federation found that the university’s law school proposal meets national standards, despite its positions on homosexuality and traditional marriage. TWU’s “community covenant” asks its students to follow “actions identified in the Bible as virtues” and to abstain from activities such as “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.”

The school’s call for voluntary abstinence from homosexual activity was challenged in Canadian courts decades ago, and was upheld in a landmark 2001 Supreme Court of Canada decision. It should not be used in the future to deny TWU law school graduates entry to the legal profession, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada concluded in December.

But a number of provincial law societies decided to explore the matter and pass their own judgments. Decisions are expected this month in Ontario and in Nova Scotia, and later this year in New Brunswick.

B.C.’s law society launched its review in January, and received more than 300 letters from lawyers, academics, civil liberties groups and members of the public. It then formulated a motion that, had it passed, would declare TWU’s proposed school “not an approved faculty of law.”

More than two dozen law society members gathered in Vancouver early Friday to vote on the motion. But first, they debated. While many agreed the university’s position on sexual activity is repugnant and may even be discriminatory, they all conceded it is not unlawful.

Some said it isn’t their business to interfere with a law school’s religious-based values and directions. “The law society is not a belief regulator,” argued one bencher, Kenneth Walker. “We are a conduct regulator.”

David Crossin, a prominent Vancouver lawyer and bencher, launched into a personal story, noting he has a gay brother. Their mother left her own church years ago, he recalled, when it still frowned on homosexuality. “But she believed the church had a right to take that position,” Mr. Crossin said. “You don’t meet intolerance with intolerance.”

The law society is not a belief regulator

Another bencher, Joe Arvay, acknowledged the society is bound by the law. But, he said, “I don’t recognize that law [allowing TWU its religious-based community covenant].”

But the motion to reject TWU’s future law school as an approved faculty was then soundly defeated, by a vote of 20-6.

“We are very pleased,” the university’s president, Bob Kuhn, said in a statement. “This is also an important decision for all Canadians. It says that there is room in a democratic country like Canada for a law school at a Christian university.”

Trinity Western plans to open its law school in 2016, at its main campus in suburban Langley, a 45-minute drive east of Vancouver.
According to Mr. Kuhn, some of the university’s 4,000 students are proudly gay.